The Penn's Grove record., 1887-04-30
AGED oNDER-woRKEn
Old Dutch Women i'm Pennsylvania
Who Profess to Practice Witch
craft.

In bne ola DuLcn villages OIL Icuu-
~sylvania, are many old women whom
the people believe to possess super
| natural powers. 1 visited two of these
witch women, as they are called-Bar-
bara Fisher and Mother ROske. Bar
bara lived in the Dunkard settlement,
In a rude cabin In the mountains, six
or seven miles from Reinholdsvllle.
| She must be now eighty-dve years old.
She was active and apparently physi-
cally strong when 1 saw her, but much
bent and wr1nkled, with hair as white
as snow. Cunning and shrewdness
were plainly pictured on her face, and
her eyes were as keen as a hawks, and
not much larger. She, like all OF the
''wonder-working" women of the re-
gIon, has an ancient volume printed In
the German language, containing many
fantastic signs and symbols, and known
as a mystery book" Some of these
curious volumes are said to be over
two hundred years old, and were
brought from Germany by ancestors
of the present wonder-workers, who
were themselves adopts in ~witch-doc-
toring, No alien hand is allowed to
touch these sacred books, and but few
persons have ever seen inside ther
heavy covers. Barbara Fisher con-
lnes her ministrations to her neighbors,
and they go to her from miles around.
Husbands take their wives, fathers
their children and young men their
sweethearts to Mother Fisher for treat
ment for all ills and the removal of
evil spells, and to obtain charms that
will be potent In love and business.
She will, for a fee, give an applicant
a charm to ward off lightning from his
buildings, confound his enemies by
b~ewitching them, making their wells
run dry, forcing their cows to give
bloody milk, prostrating their families
with sickness, or bringing any dire
punishment upon them that the appll-
can't will pay for. She will undertake
the Job of stunning the growth of a
baby, destroying a rivals beauty,
separating man and wife, settling
lovers quarrels, laying at rest a
lovers doubts as to the f~aithfulness OF
his sweetheart or convincing him that
she is false, procuring desired marriages,
or doing anything equally absurd either
in the way of scattering blessings or
calling down evils, according to the
desires Of her customers and the size
of the fee. Old Mother Roske is said
to be ninety years old, and she looks
it. She lives alone and her most
ambitious feat in woodworking was
the seeing of a gold mine in the vicin-
ity, and collecting a fee from every
farmer in the neighborhood for the
privilege of digging nightly for the
precious deposit. After pretty much
the whole of the ground in the COM
munity had been turned up, and no
gold was found, Mother Roske an
nounced that the work might as well
cease, as it was evident that some n
among the diggers had a COW with
blood in her horns, and utill the COW
could be found and killed, and the
blood drawn from the horns and spilled
on the ground at midnight when the
moon was in its first quarter, 1t would
be useless to look farther for the
treasure. The farmers spent much
time trying to find such a cow among
their stock, and, although that was
several years ago, whenever a COW is
killed to this day In that vicinity her
horns are sawed off in hopes that the
blood may be found and used as
Mother Roske directed, in order that
the gold mine may be discovered.
Some of the charms prescribed by
these witch women, and faithfully used
and believed in by the credulous people
among whom they operate, it is mild to
call ridiculous. In the potency OF
wltch-haZel, the wonder-makers rely
greatly. Young women are instructed
to carry its leaves in their bosoms as a
love-charm; so long as they are there
worn no rival can win their sweet
hearts from them. If they would dream
Of their lovers, they must sleep with
witch-hazel leaves under their pillows:
but, in all cases, the charm must be
prepared by the wonder-maker, To
make an enemy's well run dry, ashes
of witch-hazel must be forced into the
mouth of a toad over which the witch
woman has held IN incarnation. BY
dropping the toad thus prepared into
the enemy's well the water will leave
1t. One OF the worst things that can
befall these superstitious farmers is to
have a cow give bloody milk. That is
regarded as the genuine work of the
devil himself. Consequently, if one
man Is pining for vengeance on
another he wreaks it to his satisfaction
by obtaining a toad which has been fed
on witch-hazel by a wonder-worker,
and placing it where the enemy will
step on it. That will turn his cows
milk into blood with neatness and dis
patch.
One Of the Jobs that requires nice
work on the part of the wonder. worker
is the separation of a man and wife,
which seems to be another favorite
way these farmers have OF seeking ven
geance for wrong done them. The de.
signing and heartless person who would
tear man and wife as under must first
get a hair from the head Of a woman
whose hair is the opposite in color to
that of the wife of the man in whose
family the separation is desired. The
hair. however, must under no circum-
stances be red. Then the simple fact
must be ascertained as to which was
born the nearest to running water, the
husband or the wife. Whichever n
it may be, that is the n who must be
operated upon. Something that the
husband and wife have both worn at
the same time in their lives must be Sc
cured and burned. and the hair held In
the smoke that arises The smoked
hairs mission is then to be buried at
the side OF the house where the
doomed couple live, so that water from
the caves may drop on the spot. The
name of the person who is being oper-
ated upon is then written on a piece Of
paper and buried where the shadow of
something cast By the light Of the moO
will fall upon it. II the man and wife
do not Immediately quarrel, and the
quarrel is not followed by the wife
packing up and returning to her fa-
theirs after that, it IS prima facie evil
dence that the operator was a little
short of faith In the infallibility of the
spell, and he a not hope to succeed
in his fell designs until he stands ia
an east wind for three successive days
and prays fervently for abiding faith in
tie power OF the witchwomen.
Envy is fixed on merit; and, like a
sore eye, Is offended with everything
that is bright.
Little troubles wear the heart out.
II Is easier to throw a bombshell a